Transport and storage is vital to the Australian economy, underpinning a diverse range of industries and activities. These range from transporting and storing freight, to the movement of people by private and public transport, to vehicle hire and even the use of pipelines.

Transport and storage is not an 'industry' in the traditional sense. Industries are classified in accordance with the goods they produce, whereas transport and storage depends on the services and infrastructure provided to customers to enable the activity of carrying goods and passengers.

In national accounting terms, the contribution of an industry to the overall production of goods and services in an economy is measured by industry gross value added (GVA). Industry GVA sums the gross value added by each producer in the industry.

Graph 22.1 shows total production of the transport and storage industry measured by industry GVA in chain volume terms (i.e. output adjusted for price changes) has doubled between 1984-85 and 2002-03.

Table 22.2 shows the industry GVA of the each of the sectors (or industry subdivisions) which the ABS uses to describe the transport and storage industry. The table also shows the contribution the transport and storage industry made to Australia's gross domestic product (GDP). During the period 1998-99 to 2002-03, total transport and storage industry GVA rose by 18.9%. This was greater than the overall growth rate of the economy. The transport industry increased its contribution to GDP from 4.7% in 1998-99 to 5.0% in 2002-03.

All sectors within the transport and storage industry had larger increases in GVA between 1998-99 and 2002-03 than the increase in GDP over the same period. Within the industry the road transport sector had the greatest increase in GVA (23.9%), followed by rail, pipeline and other transport (20.1%), and transport services and storage (which includes water transport) (15.9%). The smallest increase in GVA in the four-year period was in the air and space transport sector of the industry (13.8%).